The day started off roughly as I had overslept and kept my taxi driver waiting, which made the ride to the station terribly awkward, as she actually lectured me on the importance of not calling a taxi until you’re ready to leave. I felt like a child but that feeling quickly changed when I got to the Conference Venue.
I was the only young person, everyone was so much older than me. I suddenly felt really nervous but then I met Laura-Jane Rawlings the CEO and Founder of Youth Employment UK (YEUK) and she was so down to earth and casual I quickly felt like I belonged. LJ got me a name tag and seeing my name made me feel like an adult, more so when I saw the conference room. Unlike in the taxi, I felt like a grown up.
The first talk I heard was about young offenders and trying to help them back into society by giving them qualifications and life skills. I could tell the speaker was very passionate. He said we were going to meet some of his students and I got excited thinking, ‘oh maybe there will be another person my age’, but unfortunately he was speaking figuratively as they were nowhere to be seen. We simply had to imagine them as he described what they were like. This became a recurring theme as many speakers spoke of young people, spoke about young people, had spoken to young people but where were the young people?
This is where it was obvious that YEUK are leading the pack in terms of actually engaging and putting at the forefront the young people that you speak so passionately about. LJ was very passionate about the importance of being youth-led and you could see the looks of admiration and respect in the audience as she spoke and then it was my turn to speak. I was so nervous I mumbled a few times and only said about half of what I had rehearsed, but I spoke and that’s a first for me. In all the times I have worked with youth charities and youth organisations I had never actually really spoken and been heard. No one told me what to say, I wasn’t given a speech. I was literally trusted to speak to a room full of professionals, and it felt amazing.
In conclusion, it was an amazing event. I met so many lovely people who were genuinely passionate and had mine and other young people’s best interest at heart. The passion was definitely there but there was also some disillusionment. I could tell that some people in that room hadn’t heard a young person’s perspective on things for a really long time, and as LJ said in her speech we need more of that, less talking and more action. I felt like we changed some perspectives about NEETs and showed another in which the system lets young people down. I learnt a lot of new things, I feel more confident and most importantly: thank you LJ, and Sylvia, for trusting me to speak and for making my voice heard.
You can meet Michelle at the Youth Friendly Employer Conference on the 1st of December
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